Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - ACC SQUAD - ACC potentially merging with Big East for future success

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

UNC basketball is making waves with the hiring of Jim Tanner as their new GM, a move that could redefine college basketball's professional landscape. Could this be the game-changer the Tar Heels need? With Hubert Davis's contract extension, the team is poised for a strategic overhaul. The episode dives into the ACC's NCAA tournament bubble teams, spotlighting Wake Forest's precarious position and the potential for an ACC-Big East merger. Key figures like Rick Pitino and Val Ackerman are part of the conversation, offering insights into the evolving dynamics of college sports.Join Alex Donno, Isaac Shade, Jackson Holzer, and Kenton Gibbs as they dissect these developments. Discover how these changes might impact the ACC's future and what it means for fans and players alike. Don't miss out on this insider analysis that could reshape your understanding of college basketball. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The North Carolina Tar Heels hire a new GM of basketball, and they also announced the extension for all very excited about two more years, two extra years of Hubert Davis. Let's bring in the squad. You're talking ball with the ACC squad. From Florida State to North Carolina, from Syracuse to Miami, and from NC State to California, it's the local experts of the Locked-on Podcast Network,

bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming ACC weekend. Hang on. It could get loud. It could get heated. And it will definitely be fun. Squad up. You're part of the ACCC squad. And we'll talk about ACC hoop teams on the bubble, not only for the NCAA tournament, but for the ACC tournament, because three are not going to get in. We'll also talk on this loaded episode of the squad about rumors about a possible ACC Big East merger. And we got a lot to get to. I'm Alex Dono from Lockdowne Canes. We got Isaac Shane. from Lockdown Tar Heels, Jackson Holzer from Lockdown, Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack,

and Isaac, all the chatter has been about UNC this week. So I'll let you buy the first round. You got a new GM and the same head coach for a couple extra years. Yeah, man, absolutely. This had been rumored, actually, for a couple weeks now of not just the fact that Carolina would hire a GM, but that it would be Jim Tanner. Apparently, this had been going on behind the scenes. And so this was by no means a shock. What was a shock, Dono, was the timing of this thing. Here we are on Monday evening, February 24th. Carolina has just won down in Tallahassee. And literally, as I'm in the middle of recording my live postcast show after

Carolina wins by 11, yeah, we'll take that. Out comes this news that Carolina is hiring Jim Tanner to be their GM. The timing was weird on it. Not the weirdest timing of what we're about to talk about. But it's great news for Carolina because, Donna, this is the take for me on it, is that I'm so glad they went ahead with this now rather than waiting till the summer or even waiting till March madness because you want to get out ahead of this thing. Get Jim Tanner in. Let him get ready, get going, start his board and figure out who he wants to go after all of that stuff and get

this thing rolling. So the second the portal hits, he's already had time. So I think this is great timing. I think he's the right guy for the job, has great cachet in the game. And it sounds like there might even be some sort of role for Tar Heel and NBA GM Buzz Peterson as well alongside. We're waiting on that news. But man, I think this is a great move by the University of North Carolina. Now, what about the timing of the head coach extension, though? Let's get into that. Yeah, that one's different.

So it is funny because the report is that. And as we record here on Tuesday, I'm actually still trying to do some work behind the scenes to learn like why this timing? Because it's odd. It was offered the contract back a little bit earlier in the fall of 24, signed by Coach Davis in December. And we're just now hearing about it, literally coming out broken the same day as the news about the GM.

The funny thing is, though, as we record, there's still no official announcement from Carolina about it, although you can't find the contract details on the website. So that's all there. and a lot of people have said, hey, what do you think the reaction is of a lot of people? And my joke has been, for those who are ACC squad regulars, I think Kenton and Grayson are going to be just about the same kind of response that they have to the Bill Belichick news about this.

Oh, wow, wow. I can't believe that you think I would be facetiously optimistic about Hubert Davis being bought back longer. I think that he's a fantastic. Because as he led you guys to a final four already, you know, what are we doing? Why are we being nice for the Hubert? Let's give him some more time. He'll figure it out.

And very genuinely, not even joking about this part. I think that tenure higher is a hell of a higher. I really do. You know, you talk about cachet in the game and all that. There are very few more respected agents, more respected folks who work in that representing space than him. the interesting part of it is he does have a lot of respect in that range in that realm. How much involvement will he have directly with the recruiting? Because I think that's a slightly different ballgame.

I think that's a different ballgame where you're asking a different question. But it is still interesting to see. I'm not willing to go far enough to say like, hey, I have a very strong inclination that that will be a failure. Because again, this is a guy that is very well respected. and everybody that you talk to about Jim Tenors says nothing but great things about him, which is like that's rare in the agent world. You always hear from somebody, some like second round pick or, you know, even going back further, fourth, fifth round pick that was never going to make NBA roster.

Oh, he didn't do right by me. There's nothing to be found on Turner to that extent. So I think that he's an absolutely slam dunk higher. And I think he's an indication of the way that basketball is changing. And college athletics as a whole is changing. to where you've got one guy that does the coaching, one guy that does the roster management. They're no longer one person. Well, I agree with that.

I like the changing landscape of it, but it's very interesting the timing of the coaching extension here with Hubert Davis. So this happened in December, but everyone's learning about it now in late February. Why is that the case? I genuinely am asking you all. Why do you announce it now? Why didn't they just announce it in December? Here's what I think it is. Here's what I think it is, Jackson, is, again, it's not something that's coming out directly.

Like, it's not a press release from the university. I think my, here's my guess. And again, I still haven't found this out. I think this was scooped as people were finding out the GM information. And it's why we found it out at the same time. That is my guess. Okay. Do you think that the reporting on it?

I don't think it's coincidental that all of a sudden Carolina has won four straight games and now they are announcing this extension. I don't think it's coincidental. That's my theory on this. Like you said, though, they're not announcing it, though. Okay. But when you don't want something to leak, it doesn't leak.

Yeah. I don't know about that. I don't know about that, Jackson. I mean, people like us are a bit persuasive at times and know who to talk to. Right. You know, hey, hey, hold, who. I say bribes now.

We're keeping everything above board. You know, we do it the right way here in Locked off. But I will say this. The four-game winning streak is not enough for me to think this is when UNC would do it. Because there's different levels for different tiers of program. UNC is not that tier of program where it's like, oh, ho, we beat SMU. Now the fans are going to be on board for keeping them. Nah, unless you win the Battle of the Blues or something like that,

Then I would say like, oh, yeah, you just beat Cooper Flag and all those first round picks over there. Sure, it would make sense. But, I mean, to me, knowing what I know about the folks over in Chapel Hill, I highly doubt that a four-game winning streak is enough to be like, woo, the sweat is off our brow now. We're clear and good to sign them. I just don't think. Let me give you, hold on. Let me give you my theory on why there could be a strategic leak if that's what happened, all right? You hire Jim Tanner as your GM.

which would ultimately lead to speculation, hey, is he going to have maybe some decision power on, you know, making a head coaching change, right? Making a firing of Huber Davis and finding his, quote, unquote, his own guy. And so you want to get ahead of that speculation and leak, oh, by the way, two and a half months ago, we signed Hubert Davis to an extension already because otherwise the rumor mill is going to start churning and that could become a distraction for UNC. So that's another reason why the timing could make sense. Yeah.

Let me read from. That's absolutely great theory. That's actually amazing. I like that. From Carolina's release about Jim Tanner's role, it says, quote, in this role, Tanner will, among other things, help manage the construction of the roster, negotiate contracts, identify and hire new scouting and analytic staff and spearhead player development programs, end quote.

So it seems like it is going to be wide reaching. And it's interesting. his title is actually executive director and general manager. That was interesting to me as well. This is literally just pro sports. It's pro sports now. Like no more college. It's just college and name. It's pro sports. You read that. I mean like roster construction, negotiating contracts. We're talking when we're talking the NBA now, except in college. Wait, I would argue North Carolina, North Carolina on multiple fronts is embracing that. I mean, they hire, you know.

But I think a lot of schools are, most schools are now embracing it, which they should, but I'm just saying, I mean, this is, this is anything. I think Carolina has been behind on getting this GM.

You didn't have a GM before. Yeah, you were behind. Oh, but they were on the whole, like, we don't do classes here, thing.

You didn't come. Never mind. But here is something that is actually very, very important to recognize here. This has been professional athletics for quite some time. Like let's let's let's when NIL was approved sure that's the moment where the players made this thing a pro sport. But how long has it been since the highest paid state employee in most states were not in fact head coaches of basketball or football teams? Like let's let's not

act like it's now being professionalized into something different. And again, UNC and their moods is just showing with the players having power, you now need to. to create a different type of environment to ensure that, hey, we're protected on our end as well. Because that is the one thing that I will say, out of all of the NIL, out of all of the contracts and all that that I've seen, universities have not done a great job of protecting themselves

and locking down players for decent amounts of time. And I know locking down ain't necessarily the verbiage, the best verbiage to use in these situations. But ensuring that those players are on your roster, ensuring, hey, we're going to invest in you. we believe in you, we're going to support you. And now we need to know that you will be here to potentially return on that investment for a good amount of time. I don't think that, you know, schools have done a great job.

But that's why I do think again, this GM hire, more GMs are coming all around college sports. Pretty soon you're going to be seen as an arcade thing of the past. If you don't have roster construction, roster construction and management separate from the coaching in one of the revenue-generating sports. When we come back, we're going to talk, ACC bubble. Right now there are still four teams projected to make the NCAA tournament. Who's going to miss out on the ACC tournament? And we got to talk about this rumored merger between the ACC and the Big East. Listen, I grew up a Big East fan. That's where Miami and several others who were now in the ACC used to be. Maybe I can have my cake and eat it too. You want to keep

it locked right here. Alex Dono from Locked on Caines, Isaac Shade locked on Tar Heels and locked on college basketball. Jackson Holeser locked on Syracuse, Kenton Gibbs, locked on Wolfpack. We're only getting started on the ACC squad. Oh, guys, ACC squad fans, the future of college sports is here and it's transparent. We were just talking NIL and before the Roy app, NIL negotiations often happened under the table. Fans didn't have a clear way to directly support the athletes they love. Now, with Roy, you get to be part of the change and support your favorite school's athletes in the most transparent way possible. Roy, the NIL app, allows you to choose the player you want to support, decide how much to contribute and receive exclusive content from the athletes, you back.

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Thank you so much for making the ACC squad. Your first listen and your first watch were available free. Rev. you get your podcast available free on YouTube and available on all of our different channels. Unlocked on ACC, unlocked on tar heels, locked on Wolfpack, locked on Syracuse and all all of the other channels free wherever you get your podcast and free on YouTube. All right. So fellas, you know, Kenton and I had talked after the weekend about, you know, how damaging that, that NC State upset win might have been for Wake Forest.

I'm still seeing them, you know, sneaking in 11 seed in the latest bracketology, but their room for error goes down. You know, Duke has been consistent at the top. Clemson and Louisville have an excellent season. So the ACC is projected to get four in. I'll go to Isaac first on this one. Do you see all four of those getting in? And how do you see it shaping out from an ACC standpoint?

Hold on you're muted. Duke is locked in at that one seed line, especially Alabama has a great, like Alabama's last three games right now to end the regular season are against teams ranked five, three, and one in the nation. So they're on tenuous ground for the one seed. Duke is basically locked in. Both Clemson and Louisville, man, their stock is rising.

I think they're in like six seed range as we record on Tuesday. Really, really good for them seeing what they're doing. I think that the ACC will get four teams. The question is, will it be Wake or North Carolina or SMU? I think Pitt is just in that group after the next four out. I don't think there's really any hope. They've just taken on too much watch. water lately. But I do think we'll get a fourth team because we've got enough teams with easy

enough schedules down the stretch. And obviously we've got to wait and see what other teams do around the country and what happens in the ACC tournament. But I do think we'll get a fourth. If I had to go today, I think I would stick with Wake because they're the team that's on the right side of the bubble right now in most people's perspective. And then I think SMU has the least chance out of those three schools. Oh, here we go with Isaac being much too humble and generous again. We all know good and damn well. If it is a question about Wake Forest or North Carolina on that bubble, there is not a world where they're saying,

hmm, leave Wake Forest out or leave Wake Forest in, Put Carolina out. Yes, I know from a standpoint of, hey, resumes, and this doesn't make sense who should or should not be in or out. Obviously, right now, Wake Forest has that advantage. Unfortunately, the people who pick who goes into the NCAA tournament, aren't that different from the folks who pick who goes into college football tournament with all due respect. It's not that different in terms of brands matter. In terms of viewership, while it shouldn't matter, while it's not a stated criteria, it always finds a way to matter in a very meaningful way.

To me, Way Forest has to get off the bubble. You have to get off the bubble. You have to be standing with 10 toes firmly planted on the right side of the line. in order for them to get in, especially if North Carolina has seen us the next team up as like, who do we go with? Which one of your teams is better?

And I don't think they're there right now. Can they get there? Absolutely. But that lost to NC State was a massive blow to those hopes. Because again, that's what a quad three or four lost this late in season? It's actually just a quad two, interestingly. Since it was in Raleigh. Oh, but, Kenton, to your point,

point, though, two of their last three games have been those losses because they had a quad three loss to Florida State at home two games before that. Prior to those two losses, Wake didn't have any losses outside of Q1. So they were in great shape because it was like, well, yeah, we haven't won a ton of quad ones, but also we got no losses outside of quad one. Now they pick up a Q3 loss at home to Florida State and the quad two loss at you guys over the weekend. And so Wake Forest has really done some damage to themselves, but they do still hold that head to head over North Carolina in their only meeting of the season. That might be the lynchpin here. So I want to push back on Kenton a little bit. It's not that I don't agree with him on brand bias. Brand bias is definitely a thing, but North

Carolina was on the bubble a couple years ago and they missed it. Yeah. So it didn't work for them a couple years ago being North Carolina. I mean, Isaac was, was North Carolina supposed to make it? I mean, they were squarely on the bubble a couple years ago, right? That's right. And it turned out they were, I think, like, the second or third team out. So they were like a win away from making it, but they were right there and didn't for sure. They were right there. And you would think with the brand bias logic that if you're really like a second or third team out and you're a brand like North Carolina, you would be put in the tournament field because you are North Carolina. I find this race between Carolina and Wake Forest really fascinating because Wake Forest does have that win against North Carolina. Very close, but they do have that win.

Right. They're ahead of them in the ACC standings. But when you look at the net rankings and you look at the Ken Palm rankings, Wake Forest is not a tournament team in the net and in Ten Palm. North Carolina is a tournament team, at least more so than Wake Forest. It's really going to come down. I mean, it's fairly obvious. It's going to come down to the final three games and the ACC tournament,

but, like, it really is, it is so close. And the margin for error is so thin. And I'm surprised. Honestly, I'm surprised that Wake Forest is still in the projected field, albeit. Yeah, I thought they would drop out after NC State. I thought that was almost a death blow. It's because the bubble is so weak always.

Well, wouldn't you say, like, Isaac, in terms of NCAA basketball tournament, Isn't it a little bit harder to do brand bias than it is in football? Because like the college football playoff, it's so open to interpretation and the criteria changes every year. And it's like the NCAA turn it. Obviously, there's going to be teams on the bubble that don't get in and are going to bitch and moan after selection Sunday happens every single year. It's not that it's without controversy, but it does seem like the precedents are more set in stone in basketball than they are in football.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, they've got so many very specific. I mean, it is laid out in the selection committee's bylaws. We look at this. We do not look at this. The bylaws for, like, for example, North Carolina's AD Bubba Cunningham is the chair of the selection committee this year. It's very specific about literally any time Carolina is discussed, he's got to leave the room or any other selection committee member with their team. And literally, if any other ACC team is brought up, he can offer nothing but factually based points.

no opinion-based anything. And so it's very drawn out how that process goes. And yeah, as you said, there's always going to be some misses or some whining and complaining. But look, the bubble is always pretty weak. And at some point, it's like, well, you're all middling teams anyway, which to me is another great point for not expanding this thing outside of the Nala. Well, I mean, even beyond that, okay, even if we say, hey, the brand bias doesn't matter

with you, woo, sure. What Isaac just said is another linch band to why, and I hate that y'all are making me be nice to you and see. I see the reverse psychology that you all have fought on me today. And it's pissing me off. But like Isaac said, these are two teams trending in opposite directions. You've got one team taking terrible quad three and interesting enough quad two losses as the other team is currently on what is tied for the ACC's second longest winning street. That is, it's, again, while we would like to pretend, basketball heads are smarter, and they don't fall for the, oh, it doesn't matter if you have those losses long as they don't come late, that's not how it works. If you see a team sputtering on their way to the finish line, as opposed to another team surging, that surging team, even if you have a head-to-head win over the team that is surging, if you're the sputterer, chances are you're going to be on the outside looking in.

But head to head should matter at least a little. I'm not saying it should be everything, but I think that's really the only reason right now Wake Forest is ahead of them. Like maybe they'll meet the conference tournament so North Carolina will get that rematch against them, but that's really why they're ahead of them. Well, part of the reason why they're beaten Wake Forest,

Wake Forest is not in the tournament field right now. And I keep almost saying NC State. North Carolina is in the tournament. NC State is in not this year not this year hey we're in a different we're going to make a Cc tournament we're going to win that thing we'll win that thing and get in exactly you don't let us you stay get hot as the folks say don't let us get hot we've seen we remember last year we do they weren't we remember last year well and so part of it with wake force like uh Ken palm and net ratings being so low is right now

y'all they are 207th and non-concour conference strength of schedule. North Carolina was seven. That is a massive factor in determining all those strength of schedule things. And that's part of why Wake is so low in that, that metric. Where is SMU in that category? Because SMU didn't play a lot of people either. No, in terms of non-constraint to schedule. Is that what you're asking? Yeah. They are, give me just one second. Well, Wally looks that up. I mean, again, 273. I knew it. NC, I knew SMU just played cupcakes the whole time. 273. How's that allowed?

Come on. Oh, go check out the Big 12, my friend. Yeah. Hello, hello. You know, but again, y'all are making a more and more compelling case here for why UNC needs to get in over Wake Forest. And the case that I have made for you all, so I've done my good deed for the year. Don't ask me to say anything nice about Tar Heels for the rest of the year, please, and thank you.

But no, seriously, I mean, I'd be shocked and appalled if Wake Forest got in over, UNC with the with the amount of evidence that we've just bought even brand bias aside here even just what we know about these two teams from this conversation it's tough to kind of swing that way for saying well and i know this is uncomfortable for kenton to say nice things about the dirty foot club because i got him a little angry on locked on acc on tuesday because i said i feel like college basketball is better when unc is doing well and in the conversation like i truly believe same thing goes for college football. Like I would love to enter an air in college football where, you know, teams like Miami, USC, Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State are all really good at the same time, Penn State.

I feel that way about college basketball as well. I got to a certain extent, like parody is cool when you get a few Cinderella runs like George Mason in the final four under Jim Laron Egg a years ago. But overall, the big brands are the ones that put butts in the seats and get the eyes on the And let me say something about that, Dono, is I realized this week, I started looking at the new AP top 25 and I was like, well, that's a recent national champion that's not ranked. And that's a recent national champion that's ranked, not ranked. You got to go all the way back to 2015 and Duke's National Championship, the last national champion that is currently ranked. Kansas, Yukon, Carolina, Villanova, Baylor, none of them are ranked in the AP top 25 right now. And that, man, there's got to be. some correlation to NIL and the transfer portal along with that. I would think so. When we come back, maybe here's a way we can fortify ACC basketball into the future. Why don't we absorb the Big East?

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Policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company, not available in certain states, prices subject to underwriting and health questions. Thank you for making the ACC Squad. Your first listen and your first watch today. guys when I first saw this headline over the weekend I kind of thought oh this is just like a complete troll and a joke but maybe there's something to this now this is something that coach kay and rick petino have both lobbied for in the recent past that you know why don't the acc in the big east which of course you know is basketball heavy conference yukon is the only school that has a football team in the big east but for basketball why don't they merge why don't they combine their powers and then the big east East Commissioner Val Ackerman. I don't believe Jim Phillips has commented on it yet, the ACC commission, but the Big East

Commissioner has entertained the idea. Let me read to you guys what she said. When you got two Hall of Famers, Ackerman said, opining about it. Not only the history of college basketball, but the future of college basketball, you have to listen, she said, about the Coach Kay and Patino comments. I take very seriously any idea around the future of college basketball, what it means for the Big East. what the Big East should be doing.

I'm not sure I can opine right now what that sort of combination would look like, but we've got some related ideas that we're hatching here about alliances, about who we should be working with as we look to secure not only the future of the Big East, but the future of college basketball. She added, I have a great relationship with other commissioners, great respect for Jim Phillips in particular. I would say I can't really comment on it, but there's been some conversations about what we could all be doing together.

again, not only to secure our own futures, but to make sure that college basketball stays strong and relevant as football interests continue to dominate much of the headlines and much of the bandwidth of the leagues that we consider peer conferences. Now, guys, there's no question that an alliance with the ACC or even a merger with the ACC, definitely that would benefit the Big East more than the ACC, but I still think it could be a net positive for the ACC when it. comes to really making your basketball product even stronger? Well, the question is, what's the negative? What's the drawback in this for the ACC? And don't get me wrong, am I saying, hey, we should take on every team from the Big East? With all due respect, DePaul, you can stay over there. With all to respect.

Can we send boxing college with them? Well, you know, we can't get rid of teams with football teams, Isaac. I'm sorry, the Spriller don't work out that way. Well, what if they create football teams? Well, I'll tell you what, if they create football teams and they get them staffed and stocked up and ready to compete at an FBS level, hell, I'm all for bringing some of these teams over.

But again, I highly doubt that the Georgetown Hoyas will be ready to compete at a FBS, you know, ACC level within a couple years. So I could see kind of forming that on-paper alliance of, oh, we'll play X amount of non-kind games with you and all that. but I think the feasibility of a 29, would it increase to 29? It would. There's 11 big East teams, yep.

Yeah, 29 team conference, a little too much, especially if we're bringing on 10 that do not have football team. Because at that point in time, it's like, okay, how do we even split this? And at that point in time, is the juice worth the squeeze? I could see maybe an ACC Big East challenge, kind of like the ACC, SEC. challenge in basketball. I do not see a 29 team conference and

football matters. In fact, it matters more than anything. They don't have football programs except for Yukon. Why would the ACC want these teams? And the PAC 12 is bringing in Gonzaga as a non-football school, but that's just one. The only entity, but that is a

basketball forward decision that there is some precedence for. But again, that's just one school versus. versus 10. And obviously, to do something like this would be very complicated because of the TV contracts. Now there could be a 2031 opening. This is speculation. But for those who have been following the settlement talks between the ACC and Clemson and Florida

State, who are suing them, one of the rumored potential settlement terms would be the ACC actually decreasing the grant of rights to expire in 2031. 2031 happens to be the same year that the Big East TV deal expires where they've got a multi-tiered TV deal with NBC, TNT, and Fox, and that deal runs up in 2013. So perhaps if, and I don't think the ACC should do this. I know Kenton and I agree on this, that if you're the ACC, do not shorten that grant of right so that's obviously something florida state and clemson would want but if they were to do that maybe that would make 2031 like the magic year where something like this could happen

i just don't know that all the teams and that's why you won't see an acc big east thing like the reason we have ac c c c is specifically because it's two at uh espn entities that's why we had acc big 10 challenge for so long and now why it switched to ac c c c c is because big 10 got a new deal that didn't include ESPN. So I don't think we'd see an ACC big east matchup until such a time as this might happen just after the current Hubert Davis contract is up. I'm going to say, I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this and I mean it. For those of you who are not Chappelle, Shokinosaurs, there was a time where they were impersonating White House personnel.

And most deaf was the Secretary of Defense. And he said, I have yellow cake uranium in my hand right now. And the gentleman I was with him said, Don't drop that stuff. Don't drop it. That's how I'm looking at the ACC right now in terms of, is it feasible and smart to drop your date for the grant of rights to expire for these basketball teams? The juice on adding these teams has to be worth five years of payment

from Clemson and Florida State each. They both have a buyout of five years. on top of what they're already making. So unless the money from that buyer is less to each team than each team would gain from potentially dropping to absorb these teams in the meaningful way, don't you do it. Don't drop that day a single day early. And like with this Big East thing, I mean, who's desire, like Yukon, clearly you want them. St. John's is back again because of Rick Petino, but how long?

That's not going to wrong. That's exactly. Like, as long as he's there, it matters. But, I mean, he can. Won't somebody think of poor Rick Matino? Remember what he said about all the cheating last time? He said that big major college basketball did this to hell. Won't somebody think about poor Rick?

Yeah. It would be great to have him back in the ACC, though. What a redemption would. Absolutely. Absolutely. But like. I'd love to cover some of their recruiting business. I'd love to.

Creighton's been great. Marquette's been great, Villanova in the J. Wright era, that's the thing. Like, are they, is, is Coach Cooley going to get Georgetown back going? So there's just, there's a lot of question marks, right? And like, as long as Hurley's at Yukon, they're going to be great. But, and Chaka and Marquette, I think they're going to continue to be great. But that's the question, too, who is stable? I don't know.

They also don't have football. The only program that has football is Yukon. Right. That's what matters. Nobody cares about Yukon football. We don't, nobody cares about you. Yukon football except for Yukon football. They care about Yukon football. Even that's debatable. Oh, they do. It's important to them. It's

football. Like who someone in the big east, can someone else create some football teams? I sit here. NIL exists. I mean, you don't have enough money to do it. There's that. There's enough money to go around here. Come on. Is there enough money to go around to form a fully functioning FBS team? I don't know. That's the expensive operation. You got to travel. How many guys on the travel team? What, 60 something, 70 something? Well, it would take years.

But my point being is that if you want to join the ACC, maybe you should start a football team now and be like, all right, we'll be ready to go in six years. But aren't like a whole thing, they're going to raise money. But in that league, a lot of small Catholic universities,

like they just may not, you know, not every Catholic university is Notre Dame. Like they don't, they don't, I don't think there's a real thing. reason why they don't have football teams. Why does this benefit the ACC if you don't have football?

And that, well, the idea behind it is if these teams are willing to join for basketball, they bring increased viewership in basketball. But again, that's why I said it, it logically, the juice is not worth to squeeze. A lot like how everybody from the ACC was saying, my school is going to vote. No, we're going to vote to get out of the ground of rights. And I'm like, okay, but where's your school going to go? Yeah.

Like everybody, imagine. themselves as being like, we're good enough for the Big Ten. We're good enough for the SEC. And it's like, okay, now you do know, when you go into that world, you have to break up the pie. There's only but so much pie on the table. And if you're not coming and bringing some more ingredients, some more dough, some more pie crust, some more filling, guess what?

Guess what just happened? Everybody else's piece of the pie shrunk a little. That's why I did not criticize the ACC for expanding out to Stanford and can't. and SMU because SMU said in the words of Travis Scott I don't want your apple pie mama I'm good I don't need to eat off what you're eating off of just let us at the table period and we'll be okay that may not be the case for an example that's just not realistic for a Villanova per se well all this pie talk is making me hungry so we'll we'll wrap up this episode of the squad I'm going to go cut out my piece to that pie huge thank you and shout out to Kenton Gibbs

from locked on Wolfpack and locked on ACC, Isaac Shade, locked on tar heels, Jackson Holzer, locked on Syracuse. I'm Alex Dono from Locked on Cains and Locked on ACC. We will talk to you guys next time on another episode of the squad right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.